Slug Club Christmas Party
by sweedflicka
Summary: What if Eldred Worple had brought Edward Cullen to Slughorn's Christmas party instead of Sanguini? Oneshot.


If Eldred Worple hadn't saved his family's skin a few years back from some muggle police, Edward Cullen would have refused coming anywhere near this party. It was full of humans who were far too pleased with themselves. Worple himself was quite smug about Edward coming as well.

What was irritating him more was the small group of girls that were debating whether or not to approach him. He couldn't wait until this stupid party was over and then he'd never have to come to something like this again.

'_Voldemort is on the rampage and Slughorn throws a party. Because the only thing more important that defeating Voldemort is throwing a Christmas party'_ one of the boys thought. Edward found the source of the thought. It was a 16 year old boy with messy black hair, bright green eyes, glasses, and scar on his forehead. Next to him was a girl with blonde hair and rather large eyes that seemed to take in the entire room at once.

Edward watched idly as Slughorn pulled in the black haired boy, who looked rather reluctant. The student grabbed the blonde girl's hand and dragged her along as well. They were introduced to Worple, who started shaking the boy's hand. "Harry Potter, what an honor it is to meet you," Worple said as the boy, who was apparently named Harry, managed to take his hand back. "If there is anything I can do for you, just name it!"

"I don't think that will be necessary," Harry said uncomfortably.

"Just as modest as Horace described!" Worple exclaimed. While the man tried to sell the idea of an autobiography to the poor boy, Edward heard Worple thinking, _'Just think of the galleons I could make off of this boy!'_ Edward was aware that that was how Worple thought but really, he was 16! What could he have possibly done to deserve this amount of greed?

"Oh, I must introduce you!" Worple told Harry. "This is Edward, a vampire!"

Edward nodded, not liking the attention. Having spent most of his life passing as a human, it was unnerving for Edward to have everyone here to know he was a vampire. Harry gave him a half smile. _'He looks almost as miserable here as I feel'_ the boy thought. That surprised Edward. If he didn't want to come to the party, then why show up?

Harry managed to escape Slughorn and Worple by saying that he had seen a friend of his. Edward could tell it was a lie and watched as Harry made his way aimlessly through the crowd, hand in hand with the blonde girl. Edward decided to hide in the corner of the room for a while to escape the attention, partially hiding behind one of the many Christmas-colored bolts of fabric hanging around the room.

Edward listened to Harry's inner ramblings for a while, finding them more interesting than those of the rest of the people at the party. When Harry started cursing to himself, sounding slightly panicked, Edward chuckled. He looked out from behind his curtain and saw that Harry was talking to a woman wearing several shawls and large glasses who was obviously drunk

"Hello," the girl with Harry said, seeming indifferent. As the two of them started talking, Harry spent the entire time looking for an escape route.

As he found himself more intrigued in this boy than anyone else at the party, he decided to help.

XXXXX

Harry was starting to think he might actually have to talk to Trelawney when a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him into a corner. Looking around, he found himself in a very small space with the vampire named Edward. He was several inches taller than Harry with gold eyes and bronze hair. His pale skin was smooth and free of the blemishes that seemed to plague the average teenager. Harry realized that Edward was much better looking that he was. Edward stopped looking around the room and stared at him, brow furrowed slightly. Harry looked away, nervous that he had been caught staring.

"You looked like you wanted help," the vampire told him softly, referring to Trelawney.

"Thank you," he said. With the fabric that was hanging from the ceiling, no one would see him here. "She can be a bit of a nightmare," he admitted.

"She seemed quite drunk," the vampire noted.

Harry sighed. "There's a new divination teacher," he told him. "She's not too happy about sharing her classes." After a moment, Harry asked, "You're Edward, right?" He wanted to make sure he had the vampire's name right.

"And you're Harry," Edward said, more statement than question. Harry nodded anyway. "Forgive me, but you don't seem to be enjoying yourself like the rest of the people here," Edward said.

Harry snorted. "Trust me, if I could have gotten out of this, I would have," he said. "How did you get roped into this?"

"I owed Worple a favor," Edward said.

As the two of them stood there, a foot apart, in the enclosed corner, Harry felt fidgety. He was more than grateful to not have to talk to Trelawney but what should he say now? Edward wasn't helping the problem either, just standing there staring at him.

Unsure what to do, Harry ran his left hand through his hair. Edward frowned and, very carefully, took Harry's hand to look at it, giving Harry plenty of time to refuse. "'I must not tell lies'," he whispered. He looked into Harry's eyes with confusion.

"We had this teacher last year," Harry told him, not sure why he was explaining this to Edward when he didn't even like talking about it with Ron or Hermione. "She hated me."

"She carved that into your hand?" Edward asked him, astonished.

"Indirectly," Harry said, evading the question.

"That's horrible," Edward told Harry flatly. "What kind of person does that?"

Harry felt his face go warm at the attention Edward was giving him. "She's gone now," he shrugged, not meeting Edward's eyes. Instead, he looked at the hand that was still holding his own. "Your hands are like ice," he said. "Are you cold?"

Edward chuckled at that, making Harry blush even harder. "All vampires have cold skin," he explained. "At least to humans."

"Oh," Harry said, feeling stupid. Maybe he should have paid closer attention to Hermione's notes. As he tried to find something intelligent to say, one of the guests bumped into him through the curtain, causing him to more or less fall into Edward's arms.

The vampire laughed a little as he caught Harry, making Harry go red. What was it with this guy? Why was he having such an irrational reaction to him? If it were Ron or Dean or Seamus, this wouldn't have been awkward at all. Was it because Edward was a vampire? Harry didn't think so; it wasn't that part that was making him act like this. So what was it? The only other time he felt this flustered was when he was talking with—

There was a loud commotion, and Harry realized that he was still in Edward's arms. He stepped back, still blushing like mad, and turned to see what the chaos was about. When he saw Malfoy being hauled in by Filch, he frowned, momentarily distracted. As he saw Malfoy being dragged off by Snape, his frowned. What was that about? Malfoy had stopped trying to impress Slughorn months ago.

He looked back at Edward, torn. Harry wanted, needed, to find out what Malfoy and Snape were talking about. But Edward . . . he really did want to keep talking to him. There was something about him that Harry liked . . .

After a few moments, his curiosity won. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I need to go."

"It's alright," Edward assured him. "It was nice meeting you."

"You too," Harry told him.

XXXXX

As Harry made his way after a man and a student, Edward smiled to himself. He was unsure what to make of Harry. Almost all humans would have found their cramped corner uncomfortable, but for different reasons than Harry did. They would have been scared that Edward would hurt them, and they should. But Harry seemed more embarrassed than scared.

With a sigh, Edward figured he should go find Worple again before the man thought he had left. He was disappointed that Harry was gone. That talk with him had been the only interesting part of this horrid affair.

Harry showed up again 20 minutes later but didn't come talk to him. Edward felt a little disappointed but got over it. He hadn't really expected Harry to. Instead, for the rest of the night, Harry would steal glances at Edward when he thought the vampire wasn't looking.

When Edward was finally able to leave, he left with the knowledge that Harry had been distracted by his presence for the rest of the night.


End file.
